App Annie’s Q2 2014 Market Index reports that significant increases in Google Play app downloads in India and Thailand meant a 60 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in downloads when compared to the iOS App Store.

India has been a particular boon for Google as it jumped two spots to third place among all countries when it comes to Google Play Store downloads and helped Google Play to post a year-on-year lead of 10 per cent over the iOS App Store.

“The fact that only 10 per cent of the Indian population is smartphone-enabled is an exciting prospect for app publishers looking for new markets to explore. We expect strong Google Play downloads combined with future smartphone adoption could help set the stage for rapid growth in India’s mobile app-related revenue by 2017,” said Oliver Lo, EVP of marketing at App Annie.

The iOS App Store continues to outstrip the Google Play Store when it comes to revenues and it garnered 80 per cent more money than its counterpart with the primary drivers of that revenue China and Japan.

“The notion that ‘West is Best’ is holding less sway as Google Play and iOS App Store are being increasingly supported by emerging smartphone markets such as India and China,” Lo added.

FIFA’s 2014 World Cup being held in Brazil meant that Google Play downloads doubled in the sports category. Around the world it was a similar story as the category increase by 20 per cent compared to Q2 2014, Germany, Argentina and the US the biggest contributors

The navigation category, which includes Google Maps, Geocaching and Tom Tom, also saw a notable rise in iOS App Store revenue of almost 20 per cent ahead of the summer holidays and it was a number driven by consumers in Belgium, Germany and Lithuania.

US, Japan and China now make up over half of the Apple iOS App Store revenue with the two Asian countries illustrating particularly impressive growth. China saw its iOS App Store make huge gains in revenue during the previous quarter thanks to China Mobile’s tie up with Apple and this continued with an increase of 20 per cent in Q2 2014.